Turkey, Twitter meet for the third time in Istanbul

Senior officials from Twitter held a third meeting with the representatives from Turkey's information technologies authority in Istanbul on Monday to discuss various issues, including opening a Twitter office in Turkey, Anadolu agency reported.

Tayfun Acarer, the head of Turkish Information and Communications Technologies Authority, met with Sinead McSweeney, Twitter's director of public policy of Europe, Middle East and Africa, for the third time this year.

Among the issues which were allegedly discussed during the meeting, were the prospect of opening of a Twitter office in Turkey and taxation concerns.

Twitter's vice president and global public policy head, Colin Crowell, who was expected to lead the Twitter delegation, did not attend the meeting.

Twitter does not have an office in Turkey despite Turkish authorities' requests for it to open a local branch.

In April, Crowell met with representatives from Turkey's information technologies authority to discuss the possibility of opening an office in Turkey.

Twitter management also met with representatives from the Turkish regulator in Dublin in May.

Turkey and Twitter have been on unfriendly terms due to the popular microblogging site's failure to implement Turkish court decisions, ordering the removal of certain web links on the grounds that they violated privacy.

Twitter's alleged unwillingness to act in accordance with Turkish law led the country's telecoms regulator, TIB, to block access to the site in March. It was restored in April after the Constitutional Court ruled that the measure violated freedom of expression.

On April 19, Twitter suspended two Turkish accounts, Bascalan and Haramzadeler333, which were accused of violating personal rights and privacy. Both accounts had posted wiretaps that purportedly implicated government officials and businessmen in improper activity.

This decision came into effect five days after a team of senior officials from Twitter management visited Turkey.